The Coalition is made up of over 20 member groups and hundreds of individual members. Members include ECO PEI, The Cooper Institute, NFU Region 1 District 1, Sierra Club of PEI, Citizens’ Alliance, The Council of Canadians, Don’t Frack PEI, Save our Seas and Shores, and several watershed groups. You’ve heard from some of our member organizations in the last couple meetings. We concur with those presentations you heard, and would like to add a few more points.

The initial consultation process was inclusive and transparent. More time was added for feedback when asked, and many of our recommendations were put forward to you from the EAC. We see some of those recommendations in the draft act.

We would like to ask you once again to continue this positive process and include more meaningful public participation in the creation and completion of the water act.

Concerned Islanders must have a real opportunity to be heard and to feel that they have had a chance to influence the ultimate decisions. I’d like to refer to this chart that demonstrates the best practices for meaningful public participation.

“The clearest evidence of the failure of this Act to protect in Winter River is in the creation of Municipal Water Supply Area. And most troubling of all is Section 35(b), that gives the minister the authority to permit municipalities to exceed the limits on water extraction permitted by the Act, with neither reasons, nor time limits –perhaps this will be in the regulations. In my earlier brief I talked about the impacts of big interests, like municipalities and corporations which the government would be reluctant to regulate. This is clear example of this influence.
This is a disturbing and perplexing provision. It seems to reflect how government will try to balance the human demand for water with the need for water for healthy ecosystems and fish life. It indicates a willingness to not protect some waterways if the City requires the water. Perhaps, ‘you just can’t protect them all.’ Continue reading “Don Mazer Comments on the Draft Water Act”→

Sarah Wheatley and Cathy Corrigan of the Winter River/Tracadie Bay Watershed Group made some excellent points in their presentation, including the need to address the issue of moving water from one watershed to another:

“Banning water exports from PEI is a good step, but it doesn’t address an existing problem.

•Water is being exported from the Winter River watershed in the process of supplying Charlottetown with water.

•Other provinces have banned the movement of water between watersheds (ex. BC, ON).

•Small scale exports, across small distances might not cause much issue, but the levels exported from Winter River clearly do have a negative impact.”

The Environmental Coalition made a presentation at the public consultation on the draft Water Act, April 12 at Poole’s Corner. Here’s some of what Daniel MacRae and Ann Wheatley had to say:

“Legislation aimed at preservation and conservation is paramount in moving forward to protect our water, but it’s not enough. In this province, fish kills and anoxia are recurring, predictable events. At the same time, people are, with reason, concerned about high levels of Nitrates in their drinking water. As strong as the Act may be in terms of dealing with contaminants after the fact, there does not seem to be anything about preventing contamination from occurring in the first place.

While it’s true that agriculture is not the only source of contamination of water, much can be attributed to overdependence on chemical inputs such as pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers, and practices such as fall plough
ing with no cover crops, removal of hedgerows, inadequate crop rotation & buffer zones. We acknowledge that many farmers are caring for the land and water, but really, we can’t dance around the problem. Within the act there should be some indication of how contamination of water will be prevented. While the particulars may indeed be contained within other pieces of legislation, there should be something within the actual water act that establishes those links, and maybe even calls for regular review of pertinent Agriculture and Land Use Acts and Regulations to ensure that all possible measures are in place to prevent contaminants from entering our water.”

Coalition members Cooper Institute and the National Farmers Union both made presentations at the Charlottetown consultation on the Draft Water Act on Monday, April 10. Read Cooper Institute’s submission here, and the NFU’s here.

Leo Broderick made a presentation on the draft water act on April 5 in Summerside. See his presentation notes here.

He asked, “How will the Water Act protect our groundwater?” and showed an old map of nitrate contamination in PEI, suggesting that groundwater in several areas of the province is not fit to drink. And that the Act does not have leverage to deal with what is a growing public health issue in the province associated with nitrate- contaminated water and most likely with pesticides as well.

Gary Schneider sent a submission electronically. You can read the whole thing here. And here’s an excerpt:

“After carefully reading the draft Act, I still don’t know how we are going to protect water in this province. I would have liked to have seen, even in a preamble or in the “Inside the Water Act” document, a statement on how we’re going to substantially reduce nitrates and pesticides in our waterways. Islanders need and deserve clear and enforceable targets on reducing nitrates, agricultural and cosmetic pesticides, and soil erosion, and to know how these will be achieved. This will include everything from removing loopholes and strengthening the crop rotation legislation to increasing the width of buffer zones as needed to protect waterways.”

The timeframe is pretty short – but everyone is welcome to participate in one of these meetings. The Draft Water Act will be presented, and there will be time for formal presentations and for comments & questions from the public, even if you are not registered to speak. Online submissions are also welcome.

Find out more information about the Act here, and about how to participate here.

The long-awaited first draft of a Water Act for PEI has been released! And now the second round of consultations begins. To help us prepare for the consultations, the Coalition for Protection of PEI Water will hold a MEETING on Monday, March 20 at 7 pm at the Farm Centre in Charlottetown. Everyone is welcome to come and share their first thoughts about the proposed legislation.

If you would like to make a presentation at one of these meetings, please pre-register with the Department of Communities, Land and Environment, by e-mail sjmoore@gov.pe.ca(link sends e-mail) or by phone (902) 368-5028.

On October 26th, the Coalition for Protection of PEI Water made a presentation to the Standing Committee on Communities, Land and Environment, following a presentation by the proponents of a proposal for a bottled water plant near Brookvale, PEI. The Coalition for the Protection of PEI Water was represented by Don Mazer, Andrew Lush, Leo Broderick and Chris Ortenburger. As you can imagine, the Coalition has a host of reasons why P.E.I. should not be exporting groundwater. Read the whole presentation here.